The father of the murdered toddler James Bulger has demanded to know whether
the Ministry of Justice turned a blind eye to what are alleged to have been
repeated probation breaches by one of his killers, Jon Venables.

Jon Venables: did he commit previous probation breaches before he was recalled to prison last month?Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Gordon Rayner and Richard Edwards

7:30AM GMT 05 Mar 2010

Venables was recalled to prison at the end of last month after he broke the terms of his licence, but there are reports that he has been in trouble with police several times before for taking drugs and getting into fights.

Venables - who has court-protected anonymity - is said to have been cautioned for possessing cocaine in December 2008, and was reportedly arrested for affray on another occasion before being released without charge.

It was only when he had a fight with a workmate, who then made a formal complaint to police, that he was sent back to prison, it is claimed.

None of the accounts of the reasons for his recall can be verified, as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is refusing to give any details at all about why Venables was put back behind bars.

But they are likely to lead to accusations that ministers and the probation service were reluctant to recall Venables to prison because it would amount to an admission that they made the wrong decision in releasing him after just eight years in a secure unit at a children’s home.

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James Bulger’s father Ralph said: “If this is true then how come he has not been recalled before this?

"I have no doubt this is just the tip of the iceberg and we are expecting a lot more to come out.

“Either way we have a right to know what he has done.”

He said the reports that Venables had been in trouble before also raised questions about whether his accomplice, Robert Thompson, had also had brushes with the law which had been kept secret.

Both men, who were 10 at the time they abducted and murdered James Bulger in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993, are living under new identities after being granted anonymity for life by the courts.

Venables is said to have developed a cocaine and ecstasy habit after being released in 2001. His arrest in 2008 is said to have happened when plain-clothed policemen caught him taking cocaine in an alley outside a nightclub.

Venables, said to have been living alone in a bedsit in the north of England, is reported to have been recalled after losing his temper “without warning” at his minimum wage job, fighting with a colleague until they were pulled apart.

Mr Bulger said: “It doesn't shock me that Venables is said to have taken drugs and been in violent scrapes.

"He killed my son and it doesn't get much more violent than that.”

Former Det Supt Albert Kirby, who led the Bulger inquiry, said: "I would not be at all surprised if these two have been given them a little more leeway than usual. But now it appears Venables has gone too far.

"These issues have apparently been building for some time, and while some may not have warranted going back to prison, you wonder what the probation officers said.”

Mr Kirby said the MoJ had treated the Bulger family in an "extremely shoddy way" because they were only notified after a newspaper, acting on a tip-off, called the MoJ to ask if Venables had been recalled.

He added: “It defines the civil servant approach which fails to notice we are dealing with real human beings here.”

Gordon Brown backed the decision of the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, to withhold details of Venables’s recall, saying he could “rightly understand” the public outcry over the case, but there were “particular constraints” preventing details being released.

Mr Bulger and Jamie’s mother Denise Fergus are expected to make personal pleas for Venables to be kept in jail when a Parole Board hearing is held in the next three months.

They have an automatic right to be speak at the hearing, though they would not be allowed to see Venables or learn his new identity.